Why buy a dedicated grass or cricket roller and not a tarmac roller?

Many Clubs are tempted to purchase hydraulically powered ex-road rollers often available from hire fleets. These can appear to offer good value for money and a lot of roller for the money. However, they are not the same as dedicated grass cricket rollers. Here are the principle differences:

• Tarmac rollers are designed to utilise hydraulic wheel motors built into the centre of the rolls, and, generally have complex hydraulic systems compared to grass rollers. Tarmac rollers are fine when working correctly, but when they fail, can be extremely expensive for replacement parts, when obtainable, and may even render the machine uneconomically viable to repair.
• We have heard on many occasions of Clubs who have gone for the ‘cheaper’ option of buying a value for money old road roller, and, had to dispose of it after 2-3 years due to the cost of parts or repair.
• Unlike Poweroll rollers; Tarmac rollers do not have a variable ballast facility to enable experimentation to establish the best requirements for the Clubs ground, every ground is unique, and Poweroll grass rollers can be ballasted to increase the machines weight as the ground becomes firmer.
• Tarmac rollers have not been designed to displace equal weight on both rollers. Therefore, rely more on one axle to produce the desired compaction, negating the advantage of the tandem roller configuration.
• Tarmac rollers are designed for rolling roads and often have to negotiate steep gradients, they are therefore over powered when used for relatively flat sports fields and can be unnecessarily expensive to run.
• They have complex hydraulic systems and engines for the application they are to be put too, rarely receive an annual service by a qualified plant fitter to maintain them to a good standard. Unfortunately, machines deteriorate whether used or not!
• Some Tarmac roller manufacturers recommend that the hydraulic pipes should be replaced every 2 years. This is due to the high fluid pressures that these machines operate at. A burst pipe on these machines can very quickly result in a considerable amount of hydraulic oil dumped onto the wicket.
• Modern road rollers usually have 2 rollers driving which has been known to damage the ground through slippage.
• They do not have split rollers whilst changing direction that may also cause ground damage.
• Tarmac rollers usually have a square edged roll that can leave ridges along the ground especially early in the rolling season when the ground is less firm and the machine possibly too heavy.
• For all the above reasons we do not accept modern hydraulic road rollers in part exchange against our new ones, however, most elderly mechanical machines of tandem design are always most welcome regardless of condition.
• All new Poweroll rollers arrive with 12 months guarantee, how much warranty will there be on an older machine designed for tarmac.
• It is possible that you will never need to buy another grass roller because grass rollers have a very long life expectancy. For this reason you may as well buy the best machine you can, so that the many advantages of the new Poweroll roller will be you for the years ahead.

Buy a new roller, discover for yourself the incomparable difference between a machine designed for the job or just making do.